Ford Fry

Tastemaker

Chef, Restaurateur

Atlanta

Executive chef Ford Fry owns several wildly successful Atlanta restaurants, including JCT. Kitchen & Bar on the Westside, No. 246 in Decatur and his newest, The Optimist and Oyster Bar at The Optimist, also on the Westside. In May 2013, Fry debuted King + Duke in Buckhead, where he focuses on open-hearth cooking, and early 2014, he'll debut his newest concept, St. Cecilia, which will server Northern Italian and Mediterranean cuisine. All of his restaurants — whether Italian, seafood or Southern-inspired — use locally sourced ingredients because, Fry says, they taste better and he can partner with suppliers and celebrate the seasonal harvests. His philosophy has worked and won him much acclaim — Fry landed on the James Beard Foundation’s 2013 semifinalists list for Outstanding Restaurateur.